Sources and Structure of Family Income (Volume II, Part IV - Subject Reports)

Definitions and Explanations

Some of the definitions used in 1960 differ from those used in 1950. These changes were made after consultation with users of census data in order to improve the statistics, even though it was recognized that comparability would be affected. The Definitions and Explanations should be interpreted in the context of the 1960 Censuses, in which data were collected by a combination of self-enumeration, direct interview, and observation by the enumerator.

The definitions below are consistent with the instructions given to the enumerator. As in all surveys, there were some failures to execute the instructions exactly. Through the forms distributed to households, the respondents were given explanations of some of the questions more uniformly than would have been given in direct interviews. Nevertheless, it was not feasible to give the full instructions to the respondents, and some erroneous replies have undoubtedly gone undetected.

More complete discussions of the definitions of population and housing items are given in 1960 Census of Population, Volume I, Characteristics of the Population, Part 1, United States Summary, and each of the State parts; and in 1960 Census of Housing, Volume I, States and Small Areas.

The data on income were derived from answers to questions P32 to P34 on the Household Questionnaire, shown in the next column.
Information on income for the calendar year 1959 was requested from all persons 14 years old and over in the sample. The figures represent the amount of income received before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, etc.

Receipts from the following sources were not included as income: Money received from the sale of property, unless the recipient was engaged in the business of selling such property; the value of income "in kind," such as free living quarters or food produced and consumed in the home; withdrawals of bank deposits; money borrowed; tax refunds; gifts and lump sum inheritances or insurance benefits.

This is defined as the total money earnings received for work performed as an. employee. It includes wages, salary, pay from Armed Forces, commissions, tips, piece-rate payments, and cash bonuses earned.

This is defined as net money income (gross receipts minus operating expenses) from a business, farm, or professional enterprise in which the person was engaged on his own account. Gross receipts include the value of all goods sold and services rendered. Expenses include the costs of goods purchased, rent, heat, light, power, depreciation charges, wages and salaries paid, business taxes, etc.

This includes money income received from sources other than wages or salary and self-employment, such as net Income (or loss) from rents or receipts from roomers or boarders, royalties; interest, dividends, and periodic income from estates and trust funds; Social Security benefits; pensions; veterans' payments, military allotments for dependents, unemployment insurance, and public assistance or other governmental payments; and periodic contributions for support from persons who are not members of the household, alimony, and periodic receipts from insurance policies or annuities.

This is defined as the algebraic sum of money wages or salary, net income from self-employment, and income other than earnings. The total income of a family is the algebraic sum of the amounts received by all income recipients in the family.

The median income is the amount which divides the distribution into two equal groups, one having incomes above the median, and the other having incomes below the median. For families and unrelated individuals, the median income is based on the total number of families and unrelated individuals; whereas, for persons, the medians are based on the distributions of persons 14 years old and over with income. The medians for wage or salary income, self-employment income, and income other than earnings, are based on the distributions of families, unrelated individuals, or persons having these types of income.

The mean income is the amount obtained by dividing the total income of a group by the number of families, unrelated individuals, or persons in that group. For wage or salary income, self-employment income, and other income, the means are based on the number of income recipients having these types of income. In the derivation of aggregate amounts, persons in the open-end interval "$25,000 and over" were assigned an estimated mean of $50,000.

The aggregate amounts needed in deriving the percentages shown in table 13 were j computed from the detailed information coded for each person14 years and over for the three types of income. For example, to obtain the aggregate income of the wife of head in families with incomes between $5,000 and $5,999, the three types of income were summed for all wives of heads who were in families whose family total income was between $5,000 and $5,999. Similarly, to obtain the aggregate income of families with incomes between $5,000 and $5,999, all the individual income amounts were summed (subtracting all losses) for all persons 14 years old and over who were in families whose total family income was between $5,000 and $5,999. In the derivation of aggregate amounts, persons in the open-end interval "$25,000 and over" were assigned an estimated mean of $50,000.

Indices that measure the relative income required by families of different size and composition to maintain the same level of material well-being constitute an important tool in studies of family living. For example, other things being equal, a four-person family will require a larger amount of income to achieve a given level of well-being than a two-person family, and a four-person family with teenage children will require somewhat more income than a four-person family with younger children. A number of indices that measure the relative income required by families of different size and age to maintain equal levels of living are available. The most extensive index of this type is the scale of equivalent income for urban families prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor, 1 which is based on data obtained in the BLS Survey of Consumer Expenditures in 1950. This scale has been adapted for use in adjusting the Income of urban families tabulated by selected family characteristics in table 4 of this report.

The left-hand pages of table 4 show urban families of selected types classified by the reported size of family income before adjustment. On facing pages, the same families of each type are classified by their adjusted family income. Each family's income was divided by the appropriate factor in table A, to obtain its adjusted income. The factors shown are the ratios of the average amount of income required for equivalent levels of living by a family of the specified type to the average amount required by a four-person family with its head 35 to 54 years of age.

Table A. Adjustment Factors for Urban family Income

Size of family

age of head (years)

Under 35

35 to 54

55 to 64

65 and over

2 persons

0.59

0.62

1.63

0.56

3 persons

0.68

0.85

0.87

0.78

4 persons

0.82

1.00

1.08

0.97

5 persons

1.02

1.15

1.25

1.11

6 persons or more

1.18

1.31

1.40

1.20

Table A shows, for example, that on the average a two-person family with head under 35 years of age requires 59 percent of the income of the standard family to purchase the same level of material well-being. It follows from this that an income of $3,000 for the younger two-person family is equivalent to an income of $5,085 for the older four-person family. Thus, both types of families are included in the same adjusted income class ($5,000 to $5,999) in table 4, although their reported money incomes differ by $2,085.

The original BLS study resulted in adjustment factors for family Income, after the payment of Federal income taxes, for some 70 different classes of urban families. The adaptation of these factors for use in this report involved reducing the number of family classes from 70 to 20 and converting the factors to a before-Federal-income-tax basis.

The questionnaire entries for income are frequently based not on records but on memory; this circumstance probably produces underestimates, because the tendency is to forget minor or irregular sources of income. Other errors of reporting are due to misunderstanding of the income questions or to misrepresentation.

A possible source of understatement in the income figures was the failure, on occasion, to obtain from the respondent any report on "other money income." For these cases the assumption was made in the Editing process that no income other than earnings was received by a person who reported only -the receipt of either wage or salary income or self-employment income. Similarly, when information was obtained on only one of the two types of earnings, it was assumed that a person who reported wage or salary income had no income from self-employment and a person who reported self-employment income had no wages or salary. Where no income information for a person 14 years old and over was reported, a more elaborate Editing procedure was used. The General nature of this procedure is described below in the section on "Collection and Processing of Data."

The income tables for families and unrelated individuals include in the lowest income group (under $1,000) those that were classified as having no 1959 income, as defined in the census. Many of these were living on income "in kind," savings, or gifts, or were newly constituted families, unrelated individuals who had recently left families, or families in which the sole breadwinner had recently died or had left the household. However, many of the families and unrelated individuals who reported no income probably had some money income which was not recorded in the census.

Although the time period covered by the income statistics is the calendar year 1959, the characteristics of persons and the composition of families refer to the time of enumeration. Thus, the income of the family does not include amounts received by persons who were members of the family during all or part of the calendar year 1959 if these persons no longer resided with the family at the time of the interview. On the other hand, family income includes amounts reported by related persons who did not reside with the family during 1959 but who were members of the family at the time of enumeration. For most of the families, however, the income reported was received by persons who were members of the family throughout 1959.

The income data in this report cover money income only. The fact that many farm families receive part of their income in the form of rent-free housing and of goods produced and consumed on the farm rather than as money should be taken into consideration in comparing the income of farm and nonfarm residents. In comparing income data for 1959 with earlier years, it should be noted that an increase or decrease in money income between two periods does not necessarily represent a comparable change in real income, because adjustments for changes in prices have not been made in this report.

In 1950, information on income similar to that requested in 1960 was obtained from a 20-percent sample of persons 14 years old and over. If the sample person was the head of a family, the income questions were repeated for the other family members as a group in order to obtain the income of the whole family. In 1960, however, separate income data were requested for each person 14 years old and over in the sample.

In the tabulation of family income for the 1950 Census, when only the head's income was reported, the assumption was made that there was no other income in the family. In the 1960 Census, all nonrespondents on income (whether heads of families or other persons) were assigned the reported income of persons with similar demographic characteristics.

In 1940, all persons 14 years old and over were asked to report (a) the amount of money wages or salary received in 1939 and (b) whether income amounting to $50 or more received in 1939 was from sources other than money wages or salaries. Comparable wage or salary distributions for 1939, 1949, and 1959 are presented in table 24 of this report.

A comparison of the family income distributions for the United States from the 1960 Census and from the March 1960 Current Population Survey is shown in table B. The CPS distribution excludes families for which complete income information was not reported, whereas the census distribution includes nonrespondents, with their income estimated on the basis of known social, demographic, and economic characteristics.

Table B. Percent Distribution of Families by family Income, According To 1960 Census and To March 1960 Current Population Survey

family income

Census (25-percent sample)

CPS

Percentage point difference

Total

100.0

100.0

â¦

Under $1,000

5.6

5.1

-0.5

$1,000 to $1,999

7.5

8.3

0.8

$2,000 to $2,999

8.3

9.3

1.0

$3,000 to $3,999

9.5

10.1

0.6

$4,000 to $4,999

11.0

11.7

0.7

$5,000 to $5,999

12.3

13.2

0.9

$6,000 to $6,999

10.7

11.0

0.3

$7,000 to $7,999

8.6

8.4

-0.2

$8,000 to $9,999

11.5

10.6

-0.9

$10,000 to $14,999

10.5

9.1

-1.4

$15,000 to $24,999

3.3

2.4

-0.9

$25,000 and over

1.3

0.7

-0.6

If one considers the proportion of families above or below the median class ($5,000 to $5,999), the differences are larger than would be expected from the standpoint of Sampling Variability. Studies are now being made or planned which may help in explaining these differences. 2

For several reasons, the income data shown in this report are not directly comparable with those which may be obtained from statistical summaries of income tax returns. Income, as defined for tax purposes, differs somewhat from the concept used by the Bureau of the Census. For example, certain types of receipts such as veterans' payments, Social Security benefits, and relief payments, which constitute the main income source for some families, are excluded from income tax coverage. Moreover, the coverage of income tax statistics is less inclusive because persons receiving less than $600 (less than $1,200, if 65 years old or over) are not required to file returns. Furthermore, some income tax returns are filed as separate returns and others as joint returns; and consequently, the income reporting unit is not consistently either a family or a person.

For several reasons, the earnings data shown here are not directly comparable with those which may be obtained from the OASDI earnings records. The coverage of the OASDI earnings record data for 1959 is less inclusive than that of the 1960 Census data because of the exclusion of the earnings of self-employed physicians, many civilian government employees, some employees of nonprofit organizations, workers covered by the Railroad Retirement Act, and persons who are not covered by the program because of insufficient earnings, including some self-employed persons, some farm workers, and domestic servants. Furthermore, earnings received from any one employer in excess of $4,800 in 1959 are not covered by the earnings record data. Finally, as the Bureau of the Census data are obtained by household interviews, they will differ from the OASDI earnings record data, which are based upon employers' reports and the Federal income tax returns of self-employed persons.

The Office of Business Economics (OBE) of the Department of Commerce publishes data on aggregate and per capita personal income received by the population in each State. If the aggregate total income were estimated from the income statistics shown in this report, it would be lower than that shown in the State income series for several reasons. The income statistics published by the Bureau of the Census are obtained from households, whereas the State income series published by OBE is estimated largely on the basis of data derived from business and governmental sources. Moreover, the definitions of income are different. The OBE income series includes some items not included in the income statistics shown in this report, such as income in kind, the value of the services of banks and other financial intermediaries rendered to persons without the assessment of specific charges, and the income of persons who died or emigrated prior to the time of enumeration. On the other hand, income statistics in publications of the Bureau of the Census include contributions for support received from persons not residing in the same household, and employee contributions for social insurance.

Although the primary purpose of the income questions in the 1960 Census was to provide distributions of families and of persons 14 years old and over by income levels, estimates of aggregate income can be obtained from these data. A comparison of aggregate income estimated from the 1960 Census returns with those prepared by OBE indicates that aggregate total money income of persons 14 years old and over derived from table 99 in Chapter C of Volume I of the 1960 Census of Population was about 94 percent of the OBE estimates for the United States after these estimates have been adjusted to make them as nearly comparable as possible with the income concept used by the Bureau of the Census. For wage and salary Income alone, the ratio was over 99 percent. A similar comparison of 1950 Census data showed that the corresponding ratios in that year were 91 percent for total money income and 97 percent for wage or salary income.

The indicated improvement in income coverage in the 1960 Census was even greater for families and unrelated individuals than it was for persons 14 years old and over. In 1950, the aggregate derived from the distributions for families and unrelated individuals was only 81 percent of the comparable OBE total, as compared with 95 percent for 1960. Probably the primary reason for the improvement in coverage of income in 1960 was the use of a household questionnaire on which income was obtained separately for each family member, in contrast to the 1950 procedure under which family income was obtained for the head of the family and for all other family members as a group. This improvement in coverage, therefore, implies that the increase in the average family income between 1949 and 1959 may be somewhat overstated.

In general, the urban population comprises all persons living in Urbanized Areas and in places of 2,500 inhabitants or more outside Urbanized Areas. More specifically, according to the definition adopted for use in the 1960 Census, the urban population comprises all persons living in (a) places of 2,500 inhabitants or more incorporated as cities, boroughs, villages, and towns (except towns in New England, New York, and Wisconsin); (b) the densely settled urban fringe, whether incorporated or unincorporated, of Urbanized Areas; (c) towns in New England and townships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania which contain no incorporated municipalities as subdivisions and have either 25,000 inhabitants or more or a population of 2,500 to 25,000 and a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; (d) counties in States other than the New England States, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania that have no incorporated municipalities within their boundaries and have a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; and (e) unincorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more. The population not classified as urban constitutes the rural population.

The rural population is subdivided into the rural- farm population, which comprises all rural residents living on farms, and the rural-nonfarm population, which comprises the remaining rural population. In the 1960 Census, the farm population consists of persons living in rural territory on places of 10 or more acres from which sales of farm products amounted to $50 or more in 1959 or on places of less than 10 acres from which sales of farm products amounted to $250 or more in 1959. All persons living in group quarters are classified as nonfarm except the relatively few living in workers' quarters (including quarters for migratory agricultural workers) that are located on a farm or ranch.

An Urbanized Area contains at least one city of 50,000 inhabitants or more in 1960 and the surrounding closely settled incorporated places and unincorporated areas that meet certain criteria relating to population density or land use. An Urbanized Area may be thought of as divided into the central city, or cities, and the remainder of the area, or the urban fringe. All persons residing in an Urbanized Area are included in the urban population.

The term "color" refers to the division of population into two groups, white and nonwhite. The color group designated as "nonwhite" includes Negroes, American Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, Hawaiians, Asian Indians, Malayans, Eskimos, Aleuts, etc. Persons of Mexican birth or ancestry who are not definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race are classified as white.

The data on Years of School Completed were derived from the answers to the two questions: (a) "What is the highest grade (or year) of regular school he has ever attended?" and (b) "Did he finish this grade (or year)?" Enumerators, were instructed to obtain the approximate equivalent grade in the American school system for persons whose highest grade of attendance was in a foreign school system, whose highest level of attendance was in an ungraded school, whose highest level of schooling was measured by "readers," or whose training by a tutor was regarded as qualifying under the "regular" school definition. Persons were to answer "No" to the second question if they were attending school, had completed only part of a grade before they dropped out, or failed to pass the last grade attended.

The number in each category of highest grade of school completed represents the combination of (a) persons who reported that they had attended the indicated grade and finished it, and (b) those who had attended the next higher grade but had not finished it.

The questions on educational attainment applied only to progress in "regular" schools. Regular schooling is that which may advance a person toward an elementary school certificate or high school diploma, or a college, university, or professional degree. Schooling that was not obtained in a regular school and schooling from a tutor or through correspondence courses were counted only if the credits obtained were regarded as transferable to a school in the regular school system. Schooling which is generally regarded as not regular includes that which is given in nursery schools, in specialized vocational, trade, or business schools; in on-the-job training; and through correspondence courses.
Elementary school, as defined here, includes grades 1 to 8, and high school includes grades 9 to 12. College includes junior or community colleges, regular 4-year colleges, and graduate or professional schools.

This classification refers to the Marital Status of the person at the time of enumeration. Persons classified as "married" comprise, therefore, both those who have been married only once and those who remarried after having been widowed or divorced. Persons reported as separated (either legally separated or otherwise absent from the spouse because of marital discord) are classified as a subcategory of married persons. The enumerators were instructed to report persons in common-law marriages as married and persons whose only marriages had been annulled as single.

A married person with "spouse present" is a man or woman whose spouse was enumerated as a member of the same household even though he or she may have been temporarily absent on business or vacation, visiting, in a hospital, etc., at the time of enumeration.

A household consists of all the persons who occupy a housing unit. A house, an apartment or other group of rooms, or a single room is regarded as a housing unit when it is occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters, that is, when the occupants do not live and eat with any other persons in the structure and there is either (1) direct access from the outside or through a common hall or (2) a kitchen or cooking equipment for the exclusive use of the occupants.

All persons who are not members of households are regarded as living In group quarters, that Is, In living quarters for institutional inmates or for other groups containing five or more persons unrelated to the person in charge. Most of the persons in group quarters live in rooming houses, college dormitories, military barracks, or institutions. With the exception of table 6 and tables 22 to 26, the present report excludes persons in group quarters.

A family consists of two or more persons in the same household who are related to each other by blood, marriage, or adoption; all persons living together in one household who are related to each other are regarded as one family. For example, if the son of the head of the household and the son's wife are members of the household, they are treated as part of the head's family. A lodger and his wife who are not related to the head of the household, or a resident employee and his wife living in, are considered as a separate family, however. Thus, a household may contain more than one family. A household head living alone or with nonrelatives only is not regarded as a family. Some households, therefore, do not contain a family.

A "primary family" comprises the head of a household and all (one or more) other persons in the household related to the head. All other families are "secondary families."

The delineation of families is based on the relationship reported among persons who were usual residents of a housing unit at the time of the enumeration. College students were enumerated at the place where they lived while attending college, and persons living in military establishments were enumerated where they were stationed. Such persons were not included in the statistics for their parental homes, even though they may have intended to return home on their completion of college or period of service.

A subfamily is a married couple with or without children, or one parent with one or more own single children under 18 years old, living in a household and related to, but not including, the head of the household or his wife. The most common example of a subfamily is a young married couple sharing the home of the husband's or wife's parents. Only those single sons and daughters under 18 years old of a subfamily head are regarded as children in the subfamily. Members of a subfamily are also members of a primary family. The number of subfamilies, therefore, is not included in the number of families.

An unrelated individual is (1) a member of a household who is living entirely alone or., with one or more persons all of whom are not related to him, or (2) a person living in group quarters who is not an inmate of an institution. A head of a household living alone or with nonrelatives only is a primary individual. An unrelated individual who is not a household head is a secondary individual.

The classification by type of family or subfamily is based on the sex and Marital Status of the head. Families and subfamilies with a head and his wife present are termed "husband-wife" families or subfamilies. Families and subfamilies with no spouse of head present are termed "other male head" or "female head," depending on the sex of the head.

A married couple is defined as a husband and his wife enumerated as members of the same household. The number of married couples is the sum of the number of husband-wife families and husband-wife subfamilies. A "married couple with own household" is a married couple in which the husband is the household head.
The head of a household, family, or subfamily is generally the person so reported by the household respondent; however, in order to avoid establishing a separate category for the small number of families with the wife reported as the head, such families are edited to show the husband as the head. One person in each household is designated as the "head"; the number of heads of households is, therefore, equal to the number of households. The same principal applies to families and subfamilies.

The wife of a family head or subfamily head is a woman married to and living with the head. This category includes women in common-law marriages as well as women in formal marriages.

Own children in a family or subfamily comprise the head's sons and daughters, including stepchildren and adopted children, living in the home. The count of own children under 18 years old is limited to single (never married) children. "Child of head 18 and over" includes all own children of that age regardless of Marital Status.
Related children, as the term is used in this report, include all family members under 18 except the family head and his wife, regardless of Marital Status. Thus, the category includes, in addition to "own children," all, ever-married children under 18 of the family head and all grandchildren, nephews, cousins, etc., of the family head who were enumerated as members of the household. Related children other than own children were identified in the coding operation only for those in primary families; such children, however, constitute well over 99 percent of all children in families.

An other relative of the head is a person related to the head of the household by blood, marriage, or adoption, but not included specifically in another category.

The mean size of family figures presented in tables 13 and 15 were obtained by dividing the total number of family members in a specified income group by the total number of families in that group. The mean number of own children under 18, under 12, or under 6 years presented in table 15 was obtained by dividing the number of children in a. specified age and income category by the number of couples or subfamilies in that income interval.

The data on Employment Status relate to the calendar week prior to the date on which the respondents filled their Household Questionnaires or were interviewed by enumerators. .This week is not the same for all respondents because not all persons were enumerated during the same week.

Employed persons comprise all civilians 14 years old and over who were either (a) "at work"- those who did any work for pay or profit, or worked without pay for 15 hours or more on a family farm or in a family business; or (b) were "with a job but not at work"- those who did not work and were not looking for work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent because of bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation, illness, or other personal reasons.

Persons are classified as unemployed if they were14 years old and over and not "at work" but looking for work. A person is considered as looking for work not only if he actually tried to find work but also if he had made such efforts recently (i.e., within the past 60 days) and was awaiting the results of these efforts. Persons waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off or furloughed are also counted as unemployed. Unemployed persons who have worked at any time in the past are classified as the "experienced unemployed."

The "experienced labor force" includes the employed, the experienced unemployed, and members of the Armed Forces. The "experienced civilian labor force" excludes the Armed Forces.

A person who "worked in 1959" is one who did any- work for pay or profit (including paid vacation and sick leave) or worked without pay on a family farm or In a family business. Classification by number of weeks worked pertains to the number of different weeks during 1959 in which the person did such work as just described. Weeks of active service in the Armed Forces are also included.

Information on Occupation, Industry, and Class of Worker was collected for persons in the experienced civilian labor force and for persons who were not in the current Labor force but had worked at some time during the period 1950 to April 1960. For employed persons the data refer to the job held during the week for which Employment Status was reported. For persons employed at two or more jobs, the data refer to the job at which the person worked the greatest number of hours. For the experienced unemployed and for persons not in the labor force, the data refer to the last job held. The occupation and industry statistics presented here are based on the detailed systems developed for the 1960 Census; see 1960 Census of Population, Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1960.

A housing unit is "occupied" if it is the usual place of residence of the person or group of persons living in it at the time of enumeration. Included are units occupied by persons who are only temporarily absent, such as persons on vacation. Units occupied by persons with no usual place of residence are also considered occupied.

A housing unit is "owner occupied" if the owner or co-owner lives in the unit, even if it is mortgaged or not fully paid for. The head himself need not be the owner. All other occupied units are classified as "renter occupied," whether or not cash rent is paid. Examples of units for which no cash rent is paid include units occupied in exchange for services rendered, units owned by relatives and occupied without payment of rent, and units occupied by sharecroppers,

Value is the respondent's estimate of how much the property would sell for on the current market (April 1960). Value data are restricted to owner-occupied units having only one housing unit in the property and no business. Units in multiunit structures and trailers were excluded from the tabulations, and in rural territory, units on farms and all units on places of 10 acres or more (whether farm or non- farm) also were excluded.

Gross rent is based on the information reported for contract rent and the cost of utilities and fuel. Contract rent is the monthly rent agreed upon regardless of any furnishings, utilities, or services that may be included. The computed rent termed "gross rent" is the contract rent plus the average monthly cost of utilities (water, electricity, gas) and fuels such as wood, coal, and oil if these items are paid for by the renter. Thus, gross rent eliminates differentials which result from varying practices with respect to the Inclusion of utilities and fuel as part of the rental payment. Rent data exclude rents for units in rural-farm territory.

The enumerator determined the condition of the housing unit by observation, on the basis of specified criteria. Nevertheless, the application of these criteria involved some judgment on the part of the individual enumerator. The training program for enumerators was designed to minimize differences in judgment.
Sound housing is defined as that which has no defects, or only slight defects which are normally corrected during the course of regular maintenance.
Deteriorating housing needs more repair than would be provided in the course of regular maintenance. Such housing has one or more defects of an intermediate nature that must be corrected if the unit is to continue to provide safe and adequate shelter.

Dilapidated housing does not provide safe and adequate shelter and in its present condition endangers the health, safety, or well-being of the occupants. Such housing has one or more critical defects, or has a combination of intermediate defects in sufficient number or extent to require considerable repair or rebuilding, or is of inadequate original construction. Critical defects result from continued neglect or lack of repair, or indicate serious damage to the structure.

Living quarters are regarded as having direct access if the entrance is direct from the outside of the structure, or through a common hall, lobby, or vestibule used by the occupants of more than one unit. The hall, lobby, or vestibule must not be part of any unit, but must be clearly separate from all units in the structure. Living quarters do not have direct access when the only entrance to the room or rooms is through a room or hall which is part of another unit.

A kitchen is defined as a room used primarily for cooking and the preparation of meals. Cooking equipment is defined as (1) a range or stove, whether or not it is regularly used, or (2) other equipment such as a hotplate or electrical appliance if it is used for the regular preparation of meals. The category "with kitchen or cooking equipment" comprises units with facilities for exclusive use; the category "lacking kitchen or cooking equipment" comprises units with shared or no facilities. Equipment is for exclusive use if it is used only by the occupants of one unit.

The facilities referred to are water supply, toilet facilities, and bathing facilities. A unit has piped hot water even though the hot water is not supplied continuously; for example, it may be supplied only at certain times of the day, week, or year. A unit has a flush toilet if it is inside the structure and available for the use of the occupants of the unit. A unit has a bathtub or shower if either facility supplied with piped water (not necessarily hot water) is inside the structure and available for the use of the occupants of the unit.

Facilities are for exclusive use if they are used only by the occupants of the one housing unit, including lodgers or other unrelated persons living in the housing unit.

The number of persons per room was computed for each housing unit by dividing the total number of household members by the number of rooms in the unit. The number of rooms is the count of whole rooms used for living purposes, such as living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, finished attic or basement rooms, recreation rooms, lodgers' rooms, and rooms used for offices by a person living in the unit. Not counted as rooms are bathrooms; halls, foyers, or vestibules; closets; alcoves; pantries; strip or pullman kitchens; laundry or furnace rooms; unfinished attics, basements, and other space used for storage.